The north London club lost Bale to Real Madrid over the summer in an £86 million deal but, despite reinvesting the money in seven new players, have failed to mount a challenge for the Premier League title and sacked Andre Villas-Boas on Monday following a 5-0 defeat to Rodgers' Liverpool at White Hart Lane last weekend.

The Northern Irishman faced a similar dilemma over the close season when Suarez sought to leave Anfield but the club steadfastly refused to accept the Uruguayan's desire to quit. Rodgers has since been rewarded for his tough stance with Suarez in the form of his life, prompting the club to begin talks with the player's representatives over a new contract.

“It's difficult. They have had a good couple of years, they were up there under Harry Redknapp. Obviously there have been difficulties from Bale leaving,” Rodgers said.

“It shows you that when you have someone with that x-factor, sometimes eight, nine or 10 players can't replace that. That was why we fought like tigers to keep Luis Suarez here because he is a top player, he is a performer.

“There are many good players but very few who perform week in, week out to that level. I am more than happy with the choice I made to come here and hopefully in time it will prove to be the right one.”

The former Swansea boss was approached to succeed Harry Redknapp at Spurs in 2012, but was in the opposing dugout to Villas-Boas as the Reds romped to victory in the Portuguese's final match in charge of the north London club before being dismissed.

And Rodgers has hit out at the short-termism of the Tottenham hierarchy as they axed Villas-Boas after just 18 months, and believes the north Londoners would not have supported him the way Liverpool have done.

When asked how he felt about Spurs' approach, the 40-year-old answered: “A close shave. They are a great club and one of the things I looked at was their history.

“They'd had 11 managers in 18 years there, so for someone like myself, who needed to create something, I needed to go to a club that was going to give us that opportunity.”